Digital 395 pushing on to Inyo County

With the Digital 395 Middle Mile Project breaking ground in Inyo county soon and already winding up Highway 58 to U.S. 395 to Ridgecrest from Barstow at a steady pace, schools, public safety and public utilities are set to receive a serious upgrade to their Internet connectivity.Yet the positive benefits for the general p...

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By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Ridgecrest Daily Independent - Ridgecrest, CA

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Nov. 23, 2012 at 1:00 PM

By Jack Barnwelljbarnwell@ridgecrestca.com

Posted Nov. 23, 2012 at 1:00 PM

With the Digital 395 Middle Mile Project breaking ground in Inyo county soon and already winding up Highway 58 to U.S. 395 to Ridgecrest from Barstow at a steady pace, schools, public safety and public utilities are set to receive a serious upgrade to their Internet connectivity.

Yet the positive benefits for the general public in rural communities is the potential boost in “last mile” access, or private access through companies like Mediacom and Verizon – something organizations like the Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium are crusading to provide.

Digital 395, overseen by the California Broadband Cooperative and installation being done by Praxis Associates, Inc, will benefit schools. It will also allow last-mile providers to tap into the line to increase their ability to deliver a higher product to customers.

Digital 395 is a massive 583-mile fiber network project running from Barstow in the south to Carson City, Nev. in the north. It received an $81.1 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 plus $19 million from the California Public Utilities Commission's California Advanced Services Fund.

Its goal is to upgrade the old telecommunications system and thrust the Eastern Sierra Nevada communities into the 21st century by providing increased broadband and communications access.

A few towns and cities along the Eastern Sierra have decent connections. Others, like Boron and the Kern River Valley, crawl along with an access sometimes a little better than dial-up.

ESCRBC is on the front lines, advocating to make broadband Internet access for regions in Kern, Mono and Inyo counties a reality.

Their goal is to provide access to the under-served and unserved, a reflection of the Digital 395 project's own agenda.

“Digital 395 means we've got wider bandwidth, more access but it's just a middle mile provider so it just runs up the middle,” said Ridgecrest councilwoman-elect Lori Acton. Acton sits on the ESCRBC's board of directors.

“Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium is the fingers that come off that for your last mile provider,” Acton said. “What we do is find those that want to be the internet service providers and they tie into the 395 project and bring it out to Boron, Cal City, the Kern River Valley.”

The benefits for Ridgecrest, Inyokern and the rest of region are just as potentially instrumental as other areas lacking a truly fast connection after Praxis rolls through from the south and installs Digital 395 transfer nodes.

“It will help the average citizen and it will help businesses because you will be able to fully utilize everything,” Acton said.

But the next two years are crucial for the ESCRBC, as they are going through the final two years of qualifying for grants

“During the next two years is where we have to start lining up our ISP providers, because there's a time line on some of the grants and funding that is out there," Acton said.

Page 2 of 3 - The impact Digital 395 will have to the overall community would last for years after the ground work is laid and the line switched on, according to Mayor Pro Tem Chip Holloway.

“The consumption of data and the need for high speed access of that data will continue to be a struggle in all areas of the country,” Holloway said Tuesday. “Digital 395 will keep us ahead of the coming wave.”

Holloway said that the project would be a boon for all areas.

“As to local entrepreneurs, there will be opportunities to create competition in offering broadband services that can only lower the price and encourage better service and reliability,” Holloway said.

The benefits to the city would allow it to move forward as a community heading toward the future, Holloway said.

“We will look back on this as one of the key components to future economic development and quality of life for years to come,” said Holloway.

The Consortium's Goals

"The consortium's goal is to facilitate and promote broadband all over Inyo, Mono and Eastern Kern (counties),” said Julie Langou, ESCRBC’s program manager. “We have three goals."

One is infrastructure related to help secure providers for the area. She said grants were available through the CPUC’s CASF subdivision.

The second goal was awareness of what Digital 395 is educating the population on what Digital 395 means.

"We try to tell people Digital 395 will not get you the Internet," Langou said. "It's a middle mile project so we need to work on the last mile so when the last mile is deployed in a community we try to advertise it."

In order to provide people with insight into training and help people get connected, the consortium is launching a digital inclusion program. The program provides 20 hours of free Internet training.

The goal is to help people realize how remote access can alleviate problems like the need to drive to the nearest DMV.

"In Ridgecrest, you don't have that problem but for people that are working a little bit remotely, to be able to renew their plate at the DMV, it can save them $50 in driving from Lone Pine," Langou said.

The nearest DMV field office to Lone Pine is 57 miles away in Bishop.

The third goal is providing refurbished computers to low-income families for free. The consortium does some of its own recycling.

In January, the organization is launching a new initiative in partnership with non-profit organization Connect2Compete.

The partnerships Connect2Compete has locally are SuddenLink and Mediacom.

"The program will provide low-cost Internet for low-income families," Langou said. Langou said she was not entirely sure if Mediacom would be partnering local in Ridgecrest.

Page 3 of 3 - She held Darwin, Calif. up as an example of what might be possible once Digital 395 and then last mile service runs through it.

"Darwin is like the end of the world," she said. "Darwin is the like the worst case scenario."

Darwin is an isolated town of less than 50 people with very limited Internet access at dial-up speed, in an area rendering smartphones little more than paperweights. Most residents are low-income.

Darwin landed on the front page of the LA Times in March and made headlines on BBC's website.

"If you want us to be successful, I think to have the connection in Darwin would be amazing," she said.

In areas like Kern River Valley and remote areas just beyond Trona, she said patience was recommended.

"My hope is that a big provider comes and there is competition," she said.

She said Ridgecrest seemed more aware and ready to tap into the program than other communities simply because of its education base.

"I think the businesses are aware of the lack of bandwidth and have a lot of projects in their heads," she said.

However there are regions that may not see cable networks due to sheer remoteness, like Homewood Canyon in Inyo County.

A satellite launched in July by EchoStar-owned HughesNet Gen4 would increase any satellite Internet access in Homewood Canyon's from 1 megabit per second to 5 megabits per second.

"That's really good news, satellite Internet for people in a rural area that will never be connected by somebody."